Australian Country

BY GEORGINA POOLE, PHOTOGRAPHY KEN BRASS A western NSW farmer who can talk furniture designer Mark Tuckey as confidently, and passionately, as agricultural machinery manufacturer John Deere, Moree’s Andrew Ball is fascinatingly contrary. Pinterest,

Mudgee’s reputation for fine wine was uppermost in Patrick Brennan’s mind when the opportunity to move to town to run the Comfort Inn Aden Mudgee motel presented itself. While the lure of ready access to labels such as Poet’s Corner, Wild Oats and Hu

BY TAMARA SIMONEAU, PHOTOGRAPHY ANASTASIA KARIOFYLLIDIS Melissa and Andrew Kidd were roughly 16,000 kilometres apart when something life-changing popped into their respective inboxes. “Melissa and I emailed the same land to each other,” Andrew expla

STORY & STYLING BY TAMARA SIMONEAU, PHOTOGRAPHY ANASTASIA KARIOFYLLIDIS Every metre of the towering bunya pines that stand stoic at the edge of this beautiful property has seen a story. Saplings might tell of the flurry of activity back in 1888 as a

BY TAMARA SIMONEAU, PHOTOGRAPHY SARAH BRIÓN  Anna Vogt isn’t afraid of a challenge. It’s a bonus for brides who seek out the talented floral stylist for her signature old-world-meets-bohemian bouquets and, as anyone on the land knows, it’s an essenti

BY KIRSTY MCKENZIE, PHOTOGRAPHY KEN BRASS  When it comes to nurture versus nature, Paula Jenkins is adamant: her career as an artist is due to equal measures of both. If she hadn’t grown up in the country, and been lucky enough to spend seven formati

BY KIRSTY MCKENZIE, PHOTOGRAPHY KEN BRASS It’s an established fact that people who honeymoon on Lord Howe Island invariably return to celebrate their important wedding anniversaries there. Generations of families spend their Christmas holidays at th

BY KIRSTY MCKENZIE, PHOTOGRAPHY KEN BRASS It’s the barns that give it away. The first, a towering gambrel-roofed machinery shed complete with an Amish star in white, symbolising purity, the power of the moon and allowing energy to flow. Which is app

BY KIRSTY MCKENZIE, PHOTOGRAPHY KEN BRASS The Brennan children know the drill. It just wouldn’t be a weekend in the country without a couple of property inspections. So when the Sydney University health sciences professor, Patrick, and his wife, Eli

COMPILED BY ALICE GRIFFIN Barbecues, beach trips and bush walks; Australia’s national psyche is born in the outdoors. It is only right, then, that our homes and gardens cater to this. A mild climate means we can make good use of our outdoor space th

BY KIRSTY MCKENZIE, PHOTOGRAPHY LORETO NORMANHURST  A week may be a long time in politics but it felt like a nanosecond for a group of year 10 drama students from Loreto Normanhurst in Sydney. During a recent artist-in-residence program, the students

COMPILED BY KIRSTY MCKENZIE The culmination of two years’ work at Everglades Historic House & Gardens at Leura in the Blue Mountains, Transitionsis an exhibition and accompanying book chronicling the cycle through the seasons. Photographer Tracy Poni

BY KIRSTY MCKENZIE More than 6000 people converged on the Queensland central highlands town of Springsure, population 1100, to attend the Doin’ it for Dolly rodeo. Organised by locals Shannon Bleakley and her partner, Dan Roberts, the event was a res